The present invention relates to a shield that will protect a cylinder barrel from being damaged due to an impact. More particularly, the present invention discloses a shield that is selectively mounted to absorb the impact of an item that would otherwise damage the cylinder barrel.
Fluid cylinders are used in a variety of industrial environments and may be utilized as hydraulic or pneumatic cylinders in order to transmit power from a pressure fluid to create movement of a piston rod. Also, these cylinders may be utilized as pumps if the piston is driven to move a fluid within the cylinder. Historically, the cylinder barrels have typically been formed of steel.
In modern engineering, there are two conflicting requirements in the design of cylinder barrels. It is important that the cylinder barrel weight be reduced whenever possible. It is an object of most modern engineering situations to reduce the weight of all components and thus there is a very real need to create a cylinder barrel that will weigh as little as possible. However, in reducing the weight of the cylinder barrel either by reducing the thickness of its walls, or by using lighter materials, the strength of the cylinder barrel is correspondingly reduced. The cylinder barrel must be strong enough to resist impact from various members that may accidentally be brought into contact with the cylinder barrel.
Thus, many cylinder barrels have relatively thin walls and are formed from lighter materials. When these cylinder barrels are accidentally impacted by an item, damage will result to the cylinder barrel and the cylinder barrel must usually be discarded.
One solution found in the prior art is to dispose a cylinder barrel within a tube. This solution is costly and usually adds undesirable weight.
Plastic covers for cylinder barrels and cylinder barrels formed of plastic have been known and utilized for various purposes. U.S. Pat. No. 4,671,746 shows a plastic outer covering disposed about the body of a hydraulic hand pump. This plastic covering is used to encapsulate aluminum housing members. However, with a device such as this, the housing cannot be selectively placed only over areas of a cylinder barrel that are exposed to impact. Also, in these types of devices, it is typically difficult to remove the cylinder barrel for any maintenance.
Several prior art devices have used cylinders formed from plastic. U.S. Pat. No. 4,785,721 is an example of such an item. The plastic cylinder results in a less expensive overall cylinder construction. However, plastic cylinders are not typically sufficiently strong to handle the high pressures that are encountered in many industrial cylinder applications. Additionally, these types of plastic cylinders cannot be selectively placed only over the areas of the cylinder barrel that are exposed to impact.
Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to create a cylinder assembly that will on the one hand be of lighter weight and will utilize light weight materials for the cylinder barrel and on the other hand will be sufficiently strong to resist damage from impact.
It is further an object of the present invention to disclose a method of protecting a cylinder barrel from accidental impact with an item.
It is further an object of the present invention to disclose a shield member that may be disposed on standard cylinder barrels in order to provide impact protection for the cylinder barrels.